It was composed in answer to a challenge issued to or by the Italian composer Geminiani ( he is buried in The Cemetery of Christ church in Dublin) The challenge was, who could compose a piece of music spontaneously . This was Carolans effort never could what Geminiani composed. This piece is also known as Fanny Power.
@digitalis7 I do not know what triplets and fluorishing you really need, but look for the same piece O'Carolan's Concerto, played by Derek Bell and the Chieftains. I dare say Derek was the greatest Irish harp player of the last century..!
There is no official sheet music to this tune. Nobody even knows how Carolan tuned his harp. All we have are the supposed melody lines, in most cases brought forward by fiddlers and the occasional harpsichord/clavichord players. Bach did an arrangement of four of Carolan's pieces. Do you think his arrangements sounded anything like Carolan's? Also, do you think Carolan played his music the same way each and every time? I'd be willing to bet he did plenty of improvisation.
Very nice - not the easiest piece to play. The B music (ie the second part) is different in many different sources. Sullivan's book is generally reckoned to be the most accurate, and that is very different from what's played here. But I have heard this version played all over the place too. The Dustys are lovely harps - I love my Ravenna 34. Nice pace to this performance.
this is such a lovely arrangement, does anyone know where I might find this arrangement or similar? i already play the tune, just looking for a nice left hand
please what brand of harp is this played on? I am a budding blind harper myself. What a beautiful arrangement. Mr Carolan would be proud indeed :) thank you so much for sharing. He is my inspiration
Hi, I can't tell you the model number, but I am 100% certain that the brand of harp she's playing is Dusty Strings. It's one of the larger solid wood models and is not a Ravenna or Boulevard. I hope this helps you.
Tammy Willcox thank you so so much. I'm going through a bit of a dark time atm, and have decided to take up the harp to fill my free time. I'm excited. Thank you so much, and I'm so sorry I'm only reading and replying to this now.
Who are the two guys sitting in the chairs on stage? This is beautiful. They look stern like they're judges. If they are, I hope gave this young lady very high marks. She's great and so is Carolan's Concerto. It's one of the first pieces I learned when I started playing the mandolin - easy to play and delightful.
Very nice. But I spend too much time scouring You Tube for the O'Carolan piece Sean Jones (the 'tailor). Anyone able to download it for us all to enjoy - my personal favorite O'Carolan work, and strangely overlooked. I do hear faint strains of the tune in this piece here though.
Certainly anything written down as a score would have been by someone listening to the music. Carolan could not have written it down himself, obviously. CelticStrings version, whether it follows the original or not, is *evocative.* That was what Turloch O'Carolan was all about. His music evoked emotions. You don't hold up a wedding or a funeral for someone who's going to play a set piece, and a mediocre player at that. His compositions were magical. That's why he's a national treasure.
I'm reading the sheet music to the folk tune along with this and she's embellishing like crazy. Still sounds pretty, but yeah, she's embellishing like crazy.
Still is typical for harp with any folk tune, especially O'Carolan. The melody line is all that was originally published, in 1747, by his son. The left hand is implied. There is, of course, logic to it. It's all the same chord, but no chords were indicated. I use much more artistic license in some of my interpretations, even going to suspensions and such. It still works. He was the Master.
Irish traditional music does not have set official "sheets". More or less only melodies which are interpreted and ornamented as the player wishes, within certain general style patterns. To write this as a criticism is missing the point entirely and shows great ignorance, rather like criticising Picasso because his faces were not lifelike. You shouldn't be playing Irish music if you don't have this very basic entry-level understanding.
@AnyMusicalWillDo The "original" is 300 years old... very unlikely the "original" survives as Turlough played it. Let's let other musicians give their takes on it, eh?
That's not the proper version. I know that there are probably a million different versions to the song but the actual version is alot different. I probably think that I say that because I'm actually Irish and have played the harp since I was 4 but still, it's a lot different from the original.
BTW, I like the guitar version of this piece as arranged by Franco Morone. Look it up on YT as played by Dracapally using Morone's arrangement. She plays Part B only once through but I can tell you that second part, on guitar in any case, is a b*tch!!
